


4am

by torasame



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 03:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21092672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torasame/pseuds/torasame
Summary: Every year, on this day, Itachi is reminded of the day the wonderful person he knew as Shisui Uchiha was brought into the world.





	4am

**Author's Note:**

> this is the earliest I've published something lmao  
day 7: shisui's birthday  
happy shisui day u _ u

Something in the wind whispered to him with words that traversed and found their way to the furthest corners of his heart- a place he had closed off even to himself for what seemed to have been an eternity. A part of him said it was the sight of the village that ultimately led to Sasuke, but it was silenced at the ache that spread like a wildfire across his chest.

"Where are you going?" He did not halt in his stride when Kisame called out to him.

Itachi kept his eyes straight ahead and his gaze fixated on nothing but glimpses of a distant past.

"There are personal matters I'd like to attend to, please proceed without me. I will join you shortly."  
He could practically hear his companion grin.

"So I was right, the great Itachi Uchiha does still hold some sentiment to his hometown." Itachi felt Kisame's aura pull away in the opposite direction and continued on.

He found himself on a path he never thought he could stand in again. He glanced around the untouched trees that had grown over the time that has passed. The scenery had expanded, but the feelings they evoked still remained the same. Itachi caught glimpses of conversations shared and memories made. He could still hear the giggles of a child that ran across the wind in fleeting reminders of history. He stopped right in front of the plastic tape that stretched across the boundaries of what was once known as the Uchiha estate.

The shadow of a boy stood before him in a hallucination he tried to shake away. He tried not to think about the little boy coming home to a scene such as this. Itachi tried to turn away but the vision persisted- he needed to know that it was his fault. Itachi had to remember he was the reason Sasuke came back to this place because he had no where else to go.

It didn't take long for him to reach a field lined with stones planted into the ground. It stretched a great distance, a walk along it would educate someone on the ancestry of the clan. You could trace it all the way back to the time of Madara Uchiha and his forefathers. What he was looking for did not reside among the neat rows and columns of his family- he had contemplated on visiting one of the more recent additions, but the shame and guilt that washed over him with the sight of the few day old flowers repelled him from the graves.

He walked over to a stone a few steps away. It held a name the wind had whispered to him, unlocking half a decade of melancholy and nostalgia. Itachi lit a set of candles he had found on the way to the memorial, allowing the smoke to carry his message to the sky above.

"Happy Birthday, Shisui."

Reality seemed to stop and grant Itachi that moment of peace in the five years of lies and isolation. Reality could only do so much for him- it couldn't bring back what had been ripped away. Every year, on this day, Itachi is reminded of the day the wonderful person he knew as Shisui Uchiha was brought into the world. Itachi would reminisce on what the older Uchiha had taught him, would remember everything Shisui had done for him. Every year for the last five years he would see Shisui's smile in his dreams, only to wake up and be reminded every year that Shisui was gone.

There was a shift in the atmosphere. Itachi peered over his shoulder to find another figure standing by the tall stone a few metres away. An eternity seemed to pass when they met each other's gazes with a mutual sense of loss hanging in between. Kakashi stared at him pensively, his hands remained in his pockets and his posture relaxed. Itachi severed the contact and turned away.

Kakashi did not follow him.

* * *

"I found it strange," Itachi glanced up nonchalantly at Kakashi's declaration. "I once thought Shisui's death had been a suicide and now I wonder how you dared to stand over his grave when you were the one who killed him."

_"It's okay, Itachi."_

The straws hanging from his hat guarded the vulnerability that passed over his eyes. He could see Shisui's back facing him as the older rooted him on. He remembered the faint contact that caused Shisui to plummet into the river below.

On the day Shisui was born, Itachi was forced to remember how he had died. Died because of him.

Itachi let the hat fall into his outstretched hand, shielding his eyes for a little longer before he faced the three jounin before him with his reconstructed facade.

"Yes," he announced, "I killed him."

**Author's Note:**

> based on a weird storyboard i made in class


End file.
